5 Marketing Steps To Success For Fundraisers

Whether you're posting on social media, creating a fundraising appeal video or simply writing a blog there are 5 simple steps to success. These steps will ensure you maximise each piece of content you produce to enable you to increase awareness, attract new supporters and ultimately attain new donors.

1. Identify your target market

First of all you need to identify who your target market is and what they need. So, let’s say for example that you are a charity that campaigns for animal welfare you might target a group of 24-35 year old vegetarians or vegans. Think about what they want or need. It might be that they are outraged by a recent law that that has been passed and envisage what they would want to do to help.

2. Answer their problem or needs

Think about your audience, do a little research but it’s also ok to make assumptions here. If they are 24-35 years old they are likely to be young professionals, so think about how much they could realistically afford to donate on their income and make it easy for them to do so.

3. Include a call-to-action (CTA)

In order for these people to donate you'll need to include a clear call to action, which in this case would be a button or link that leads to a donation page. All nice and simple.

4. Use the right channel, at the right time

You then need to think about this demographic and which channels they would be likely to use. It's ok to make assumptions again, but don't just put your content on every channel you think this demographic would own, think about which channel they would be most likely to engage with. Going back to the target demographic of an animal welfare charity, you could assume that vegetarian young professionals would use Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, but Twitter would be the channel where they would share this type of content, sign a petition and then make a donation.

Remember on Twitter to utilise the reach of trending hashtags.

5. Follow up

Now you’ve managed to get new people to donate to your cause, you’d think your work is done right? But it’s really important to follow up. Only 19% of first time donors are retained and studies have shown that this is usually due to a lack of communication from the charity. Sending a payment receipt here is not going to cut it, you need to make your donor feel appreciated. People want their gift to be acknowledged, they want to see the difference it has made and they want to know if the charity requires further support. Follow up with a thank you email and once your project is complete or has seen headway, let your donors know the advancements you have made and they will then very likely donate again.

For more tips on how to promote your online fundraising campaign with minimal spend, check out this video: